Reverb Tools of the Trade

Today we'll close the chapter on reverb with one last suggestion and a short list of plug-ins I personally like to use when working with sound spaces.

One more thing…

So, here's the final advice I want to give you when working with reverb: be subtle! Unless you are going for a particular effect, I recommend you to go soft on the reverbs, otherwise you risk harming rather than improving your mix. The easiest way to make sure you don't drown your song in reverb is to keep down the volume of the effect returns (my famous 9 buses). Now you know...

Tools of the trade

As usual, there are zillions of reverb plug-ins, so it would be impossible for me to to try to list them all here. So what I'll do in turn is introduce you to some of the ones I like to use.

When it comes to colored algorithmic reverbs, I usually go with the ValhallaVintageVerb. I've used this vintage-sounding reverb on almost all of my mixes ever since it came out back in 2012. Contrary to what you might think, it provides a pretty broad array of sounds and I've never had an issue finding one that suits me among the included presets. Besides, its interface is pretty straightforward and it has a pretty reasonable price tag. What else could you ask for?

When in need of a spring reverb, I usually resort to Aegean Music's Spirit Reverb.

And when I want something more "neutral" I go for the EAReverb by French software maker eaReckon.

And what about convolution reverbs? I must admit that I don't use them too much, surely due to the wrong reasons. However, whenever I feel like having some fun with impulse responses, I load LiquidSonics' Reverberate because I think it's pretty comprehensive.

Finally, if you still haven't found something that rocks your world, take a peek here and here. I'm sure you'll find something you like!